Ok, so I have no idea how to make a dark chocolate icing. I now know that. I could not get my icing dark at all. I am so disapointed and I have decided to not take in a cake to my girlfriend for her birthday. It was to be a supprise, but I just do not have enough ingredients tonight to fix or redo the icing.

Please can anyone give me an icing with measurements on the chocolate? and maybe the brand of chocolate you use. Maybe that was the problem.

And now I am worried I will not be able to pull of the wedding in all chocolate.

Janice

My suggestion is use the recipe you have. I love Dove chocolate but I've never tried it in icing. You might try the Ghiredelli (don't know if I spelled that right) baker's chocolate. Then tint the icing with brown coloring, to get the dark chocolate look you might have to add a little black. As long as it has that flavor who cares how it got the color.

I forgot to add, iff you are adding cocoa powder by the tablespoon forget it. Add it a 1/4 cup at a time.

Or you might want to consider making a ganache instead of a chocolate buttercream.

Here is a receipe for a great chocolate Buttercream Icing Receipe
1/2 cup crisco
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablesppons milk
3/4 cups cocoa or 3 1 oz unsweetened chocolate squares melted
if you want the icing a darker color add an additional 1/4 cup cocoa.
This is the Wilton receipe and it is good.

I make a regular buttercream, then add some Hershey's Special Dark cocoa and a little extra milk. Makes a nice DARK chocolate icing. If you don't want it that dark, you can add part regular Hersheys and part Special Dark until you get the color you want. Keep in mind that it will darken a tad more as it sets.

1 hint that I found was that you need to sub the cocoa powder for some of the ps in your icing.... add about 3/4 of your ps that you usually use.. then start with your cocoa powder.. Hersheys actually makes a awesome dark chocolate cocoa powder now and I have gotten rave reviews with it

I too struggle with chocolate icing but I did make one the other day (SMBC) and added melted chocolate to it and I liked it (tasted like chocolate ice cream!). Ghiradelli makes awesome chocolate and I prefer that taste to anything else and melting it is so easy! (I prefer the melted chocolate to cocoa powder.)



Also, chocolate ganache could be the way to go. You can always chill it and whip it and ice like normal that way.

Ditto on the Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa....use 1/2 special dark cocoa and 1/2 regular cocoa, adding more special dark if a darker color is needed. But if you use ALL special dark your buttercream will be BLACK, LOL just ask me how I know this..........

Personally I can't stand icing made with cocoa powder...I think it's grainy and the texture to me is weird....I dunno it may just be me.

I usually just make my regular buttercream recipe then melt 1 whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and add it in...you will proabably need to add more liquid to the icing then too...if I want it really chocolatey I'll add 2 whole bags!! I get the semi-sweet chips at Aldi for $.99 a bag so..it's not too expensive for me to make.

Also, like Cake_Princess said..it may just be better to make ganache...whipped ganache is pretty much the same texture of buttercream..but, you can't use the viva method with it.

LOL how do you know this Beckalita?

Don't ya hate when this happens... YES... Do sub for some reg. cocoa..

And I can account for the chocolate SMBC BUT.... as I just had a disaster with it... if you are doing deco. with it make sure you fill two piping bags... one that you can leave in the fridge just a short while (if you have hot hands) ... my pretty fat reverse shells fell off one by one LOL (no it wasn't funny... well it was.. you should of seen it.. like dominoes )

oops sorry

Umm if you find your choco. bc made with cocoa grainy... put it in your liquid... warm it up a bit in the micro .. takes the grain away

I too had that problem and didn't have time to figure it out. I thought the powder added a gritty taste and I must be doing something wrong because everyone that uses it, loves it. I ended up buying some chocolate buttercream at our local supply store for a wedding and it is awesome!! (Similar to bettercream) I love it. Until I figure it out, I will keep buying it!!!!

I've been looking for a great chocolate butter cream recipe, too. I love my butter cream, so I wanted something similar - just chocolate. Well, finally, in the back of the Wilton Yearbook, I found out how to make my own butter cream in a chocolate version, which I have yet to try, but it sounds like it makes sense! Here's what Wilton says:

Add 3/4 c. cocoa (or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted) and an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons milk to Buttercream Icing recipe. Mix until well blended. For a unique change of pace, use 1/8 to 1/4 tsp Wilton candy flavors in place of vanilla extract.

chocolate mocha: Substitute freshly brewed strong coffee for milk in recipe.

darker chocolate icing: Add 4 more unsweetened chocolate squares or 1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder and 1 more tablespoon milk to chocolate butter cream recipe.

I like their ideas better.

i made my choc buttercream this past weekend ,but used it as a filling.
i used my regular buttercream recipe without adding any cocoa or any chocolate.then i made a batch of choc ganache and added it to my buttercream. very nice choc color and the taste was really good! didnt use the whole batch of ganache,just added as much as i wanted.